Emmrich's Gravest Fear & The Wolf's Call | Dragon Age: The Veilguard [Part 13]

[@WineAndGames]

Emmrich is sooooo well written. I mean he's clearly more articulate and refined than other characters so his lines would feel a bit more elevated but it takes skill to write someone like that and not have them come off as snobby or cold. Saying he creates individual lessons for every one of his pupils, his grief over his parents, his affection for Manfred, his fear of death... it all makes him feel so genuine. I love him :') And now having dipped into one or two other factions I can still say Mourn Watch is by far my favourite in terms of reactivity and content!

[@Kaimito_]

1:01:00 It means ‘slow arrow’! Cole: "His friend had to die. Because he thought they were people. A slow arrow breaks in the sad wolf's jaws."

[@tardisfeathers]

I’m really surprised they don’t expand on Felassan’s story and show us what went down between him and Solas in Masked Empire (bc most players won’t have read it), especially considering how hard they had to work (been confirmed by devs) to try and make Solas less sympathetic (also evidenced here as Mapo points out, the only time the game lets you be properly angry is with Solas). Showing Felassan’s fate explicitly would have been more effective imo than characters just repeating “oof yes, Solas bad”.

[@rievemg]

@@tardisfeathers Yeah its such a huge disappointment. Felassan plays a massive role in Solas' history, even up to Inquisition. We see his notes scattered about the Crossroads. I don't recall if Mapo did it yet, but what I will say is a certain boss fight is interesting relating to all this as well. Solas killed him because he didn't take the Eluvian control from Briala. And...nothing. Nothing on him in the game besides his brief Solas memory scenes.

[@moonchild-ee1bw]

Every time i talk to Emmerich I can't help but smile. His kindness and him being so soft-spoken is music to my ears every time

[@littlemouse7066]

Emmrich dialogue about his fear of death is one of the best things in the game It's touching and poignant.

[@imladrad2584]

Emmrich is my favourite companion by far. He’s so kind and supportive, and interested in everything and everyone. He really is just lovely, and his voice actor does such a wonderful job of conveying his emotions and his kindness. I romanced Emmrich on my first playthrough, and that’s definitely doing to be my canon Veilguard romance. I recently started a second playthrough to see how a different origin and a different romance would go, but it is SO HARD not to romance Emmrich again.

[@josh.00000]

Flirting with Neve makes Manfred hiss unhappily.

[@jord839]

Bioware did mention the accent issue with Cassandra and Tali and how it frustrated them. Once you establish a voice actor with a particular accent to represent a species/culture, it really limits you in the talent you can use if you're too strict because the fans equate that accent with the entire culture/species. Cassandra and Tali's accents were both hard to replicate, and as a result Bioware eventually just said "screw it" and quietly retired the accent as a definitive trait because there were so many good VA's they wanted to use that weren't able to do it as convincingly. Zevran equating to Antiva was easier, as more English-speaking VAs have experience with Spanish accents and more Spanish-speaking VAs that are fluent in English and have/can use the accent easily are available. Hell, Lucanis's VA is a comedian IRL and did a pretty good job of adapting his real life accent/experiences with accents into his performance. I headcanon it as just regional accents within that country. The US has multiple and it's barely 250 years old, most of Europe has dialects that are almost unintelligible within the supposedly united language. Thedas's countries have been separate for centuries, Cassandra and her Mortilitasi uncle came from one part of Nevarra, Emmerich comes from a different one with his RP British accent, that's how I imagine it.

[@viniciusstellium8012]

Like when I see people mentioned Bellara's american accent makes them cringe. I understand that maybe they wanted her to have that specific accent along with her way of speaking to make her more appealing to younger players (and criticism over it is very valid to some extent), but it wouldn't be so out of place, since Solas himself says Dalish clans vary wildly and to be fair we've never met anyone from that region until this game

[@Shadowpack95]

@@viniciusstellium8012 The only Elf with the really immersion breaking accent is Irelin. They did their absolute best to make her "Eastern Asian" in a world where no Eastern Asian inspired culture exists.

[@twiggy934]

A few Cole quotes from Trespasser that feel relevant now: "He did not want a body, but she asked him to come. He left a scar when he burned her off his face." "They made bodies from the earth, and the earth was afraid. It fought back, but they made it forget." "He broke the dreams to stop the old dreams from waking. The wolf chews its leg off to escape the trap." Really nice to se this setup to be followed up upon.

[@inaka6645]

Emmrich is my favourite companion and romance in this and honestly joint first with Solas in all the games. I started not knowing who I wanted to romance but was leaning Lucanis, Davrin and Bellara. Then Emmrich swooped in and stole my Rooks heart with his kindness and passion. I am on my 2nd playthrough and romancing him again with a Mournwatch this time and it is a 10/10, I'm going to struggle romancing anyone else.

[@jamesmccarthy962]

Excellent the mournwatcher background does not disappoint seems it adds lots of unique interactions and discussions i never got to see as a crow. They seem to have nailed making the backstories relevant to the game lots of immersion. The gardens are beautiful love the veilfire around. Finally the origin of tranquility and the blight exciting lore (:

[@jord839]

Some origins are more relevant than others, unfortunately. The general consensus at the moment is that the Mournwatch, Grey Wardens, Shadow Dragons, and Crows got the most content and unfortunately the Veil Jumpers and Lords of Fortune could have used more.

[@viniciusstellium8012]

@@jord839 Really? I got the impression they slapped the Veil Jumpers into every other relevant quest in my playthrough (which kinda makes sense, since they are the ones specializing in old Elvhen things and the fade)

[@jord839]

@@viniciusstellium8012 Just the consensus that developed from what I saw, can't say I fully agree with it. Some people felt that the Veil Jumpers were very shallow and not all that meaningful in the way the origin interacts with the plot. Generally, the common opinion seems to be that the Wardens and Mournwatch are the favorites, Shadow Dragons have a lot of reactivity but suffer from "generic fantasy good guy" syndrome, Veil Jumpers and Crows didn't get as much meaningful content outside of side-quests, and the Lords feel kind of slapped on.

[@cloudyar6726]

My pookie Felassan, I actually screamed when I reached that memory. I've loved him since I read The Masked Empire. RIP king ❤

[@KiddDaPhoenix]

Ohhh that's so cool, a Mourn Watcher gets so many small nods in Emmrich's quest! You even get to recite texts and stuff. Wow that's awesome! I romanced Emmrich on my first run, he's definitely one of my favourite companions.

[@tardisfeathers]

WRT the spirits to elves/evanuris, it really puts Solas’ companion quest in DAI into a new perspective- just like his friend we helped in the exalted plains, he was a spirit of wisdom that was corrupted into pride when mythal bound him into a body in the physical world. She played the part of those mages who bound his friend in DAI, and he was so angry with them, really telling how he feels about what she did to him 😅 and explains a lot about his actions and reluctance/regrets we see in the murals, remembering how bound spirits/demons have to act for their summoner/masters will from previous games 🤔

[@BySpartan]

careful brother! these memories can really hurt you!

[@skycloud5695]

The Editing in this video was so appreciated, cutting out a lot of the filler inbetween like you've mentioned trying to work on in recent episodes. Nailed it Mapo!

[@eloa5]

fun fact: while Matthew Mercer definitely voiced Manfred and Viper he also probably voiced the ??? ;)

[@skycloud5695]

Fun Fact about Emmerich: When Bioware begin the concepts of developing companions, they use a range of shapes, colors and styles, alongside separate short summaries of a character like 'Hot Headed Grey Warden' or 'Jokerster Circle Mage'. While it often takes time and several attempts to lock in the right 'feel' for a companion, there are in rare instances across the games, where the team collectively agree it's 'just solid out of the gate'. For Veilguard, that was Emmerich. They had 'Friendly distinguished necromancer' downpack from very early in development on Joplin, the original first version of this game, If I recall correctly, and while others came and went, Emmerich was always going to have a place in DA4, because he just worked so well as an idea with a strong foundation. Must be rewarding for the devs to see how well received he is with fans too.

[@NovelistAnne]

Saw a lot of scenes this episode that I never saw in my own playthrough! And people say there's no replayability, tsk.

[@jamesmccarthy962]

The king discussion especially that must be a mournwatch exclusive (:

[@Angarl]

This is absolutely my favourite of the memories, I love all of them so much, eating up so much good lore.

[@09spidy]

What I don't like about Taash's companion quests is that a fair number of them is just a single cutscene, all the others get a lengthy 'walk and talk' section, while Taash gets a one minute conversation.

[@seanraby7479]

Honestly I don't know how I feel about "The Blight is the severed dreams/minds of the Titans." At first I wanted to reject it, the Blight should be this evil force that might come from the Void. But the more I think about it the more sense it makes. Lyrium has a song, Titan song, so the severed dreams of the Titans corrupts the song into a scream. It's like Solas made all the Titans Tranquil. The whole "it's all part of what once was one song" thing you mentioned makes sense. It would also explain why the darkspawn came from the Deep Roads first, which was always an odd thing. This implies that Red Lyrium came first. I also recall there being a codex entry about the dwarves. How there was something called "gangue" or however it's spelled. How it's bad stone and needs to be cut away to keep the Stone healthy. What if that's Red Lyrium, the Blight?

[@AlyxMSC]

I didn't even think about the accent thing. Emmrich with a german accent would've been amazing. (Or at least that's what I think Cassandra's accent was supposed to be) But his current voice is excellent as it as, probably the best out of the whole crew.

[@Shadowpack95]

DA2 Isabella is around her Late 20s early 30s throughout the game, so in Veilguard she's in her early 50s. Which still looks good, it doesn't explain the drop in breast size from DD to B

[@JeraldLee]

According to The Art of Dragon Age The Veilguard, Emmrich is the most unchanged character from the original draft. It makes sense now as he is the only companion that still talks like Fereldan DA.

[@danigar]

I'm surprised to see how much unique dialog there is as a Mourn Watcher and how different the conversations with Emmrich feel. I played a Lord of fortune Rook and I don't remember having much dialog about being a lord, and there was barely any with Taash as well.

[@09spidy]

The Lords as a faction feel kinda undercooked in general, I've had plenty of elf/veil jumper related conversations, but the Mourn Watchers seem to have a lot more.

[@nightfrost1891]

lords have the least, mourn has the most apparently, i played lords too and was told this after

[@SaltedFishero]

Emmerich is the best romance, but especially because you're a Mourn Watcher. Seems, romance are more nuanced when you romance them with the same background. Thanks for the episode!

[@monicaslonica]

Wait what do you MEAN king Marcus is a freaking undead?? :D Why do you only find this out as a mourn watcher? 😅

[@ems7448]

I'm romancing Emmrich with a female dwarf Mourn Watcher and it's really delightful and charming (first playthrough I went with Davrin so I could adopt my griffon puppy). If I eventually get around to doing a third playthrough, I think I'll go for Neve.

[@playlistb3795]

Neve romance, especially as a Shadow Dragon, was very nice.

[@namesbluee]

Selfishly hoping more interactions with Emmrich can persuade you to romance him lol. He's my fave romance so far and I've heard a mourn watcher origin pairs well with him.

[@PetitFrogMilkArt]

Emmerich feel so real !

[@Justin-ti4xc]

@@PetitFrogMilkArt Ignorant buffoon

[@nightfrost1891]

maybe this is bc i'm a solas lover but i still think it's odd everyone acts like all this is solas' fault only when he was just told to make the weapon, all of these things he was told by mythal and i'm not saying that doesn't make him responsible but one thing i dislike about the game is it makes it seem like he's the only one at fault ever and mythal is some innocent uwu baby lol when she is seen coercing him in almost every scene and the titan one specifically is a decision pretty much all/most ancient elves made to save their asses

[@violetbliss4399]

Wouldn't be a Dragon age sequel if companions didn't have better outfits than your MC. :D Well... even sequel? To add, I kind of was disappointed by Emmrich, even if I also think they did a good job with him. But I think I expected a different type of character and it was hard to reconcile in my head, when I was really anticipating something else. A kind of more grizzled veteran rather than the curious & introspective. I can't be all that sad though, I'll always be happy whenever they add older characters. It's just so weirdly rare in rpgs. He was on my team quite a bit and was easily one of the highlights!

[@Farfalla_vendetta]

The two hour videos for this playthrough go by way too fast!

[@georgefenrirbitadze4757]

This game is woke garbage

[@iselwyr5411]

You probably are incapable of articulating what "woke" even means. Mapo, and many of us, are enjoying it. Learn to respect that

[@foxfire9320]

Funny, your comment sounds like recycled garbage.

[@georgefenrirbitadze4757]

@@iselwyr5411 it seems like you are one of these brainwashed neo-con ass licker useful idiots, it's funny because majority of the planet 98% to be exact disagrees with you, that's why this game is a fucking flop, and if not concord it would be number one flop of the year, even goat simulator has more players then this neo-liberal, pedophilia normalizing propaganda "game"

[@nightfrost1891]

@@georgefenrirbitadze4757 where did you get that stat and why tf are you talking about pedophillia????? tf you are literally insane you seem very angry at a game you never played yet are looking up videos just to rant about it, get a life

[@moysoyjoy]

Not really the vibe on this channel, mate. Toodles ✌🏾